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The Missouri Review

Poem of the Week | May 11, 2015

Paul B. Roth: "One Possible Dissemination"

This week we’re delighted to offer a new poem by Paul B. Roth. Roth has been published widely in the United States and his work has been translated and appeared in journals from Japan, Israel, China, Mexico, Romania, Estonia and the UK. He is the author of seven collections of poetry of which his three most current collections are Cadenzas by Needlelight (Cypress Books, 2009), Words the Interrupted Speak (March Street Press, 2011), and Long Way Back to the End (Rain Mountain Press, 2014). He lives in Fayetteville, NY where he’s served as editor and publisher of The Bitter Oleander Press since 1974.
 
Author’s note:

A poem written in defense of the reality behind everything that lasts in spite of man’s attempt to eliminate it.

 

One Possible Dissemination

 

Breaking into silence
scatters us
into air pounding kisses
that a jackhammer’s
uncoupled hose connector
blows through the breaths
blue newborns arrest
and release with soft fists
deep inside the same darkness
a hollow oak stump
gauzed over
by raindrop beaded spider webs
illuminates
from its blurred corners
in rooms
not built by carpenters
but by worms
who after serving earth’s
rotation
for timeless millenniums
still strain
with each pull of their endlessly
segmented bodies
to hold its orbit’s destination
safely in tow

 

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